FEBRUARY, 2022 ISSUE 136
GIPPSLAND REGION
WORKING WITH NATURE The Calvert family is looking to the long-term by applying ecological principles on their East Gippsland farm. Pictured are some of the family — Craig, Leah, Celeste, Patch and Nook — with Landcare’s Philip Vaughan. Pages 6 & 7
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ALL THINGS
DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA FEBRUARY 2022
2 // GIPPSLAND REGION
Chair’s message
Labour, sustainability themes resonate TWICE A year, leaders from the eight Regional
Development Programs across Australia meet with Dairy Australia to share information, ideas and challenges, and to workshop issues of national importance. It’s an event on the calendar that I always look forward to. Our RDP leaders are a diverse group with a wide range of farm systems and philosophies, and a variety of valuable skills and experience to draw on. The conversations are usually robust, but always respectful, with everyone sharing the common goal of a prosperous and resilient dairy industry. I find that I always return home to Gippsland with renewed enthusiasm and some new ideas. Like many things lately, our most recent meeting in November was held virtually. One of the important agenda items was the opportunity for the regions to provide input to help set the priorities for future investment by Dairy Australia. With such a big and diverse country, you can probably imagine the size of the priority list! The priorities have a wide range — from small to big, local to national, short-term to long-term. It’s an opportunity to learn what’s important in other regions, and what’s common across the country. It’s also a time to appreciate the huge range of things that Dairy Australia does for us as dairy farmers.
In the regions, we tend to focus on the onfarm delivery and programs, but there’s also really important work going on in the background to protect our right to farm, our markets and image, and to promote consumption of our products. Two common regional themes came through loud and clear at our meeting — the need for people and labour, and the need to embrace a sustainable, low carbon future. People and labour has both a short term “need workers now” element, and a longer term investment in schools, young people and career promotion. One of the recent wins that will help our business is the inclusion of the Dairy Cattle Farm Operator category in the Dairy Industry Labour Agreement. This will give any working holiday makers that we employ a pathway for residency after only 12 months’ experience in the industry. This is hopefully a great way to attract and retain new talent in dairy. I’m also really pleased to see renewed investment into the highly successful Cows Create Careers in schools. For more information, please visit www.jaydee.net. au/food-fibre-programs The need for a low carbon future and genuinely sustainable farming practices appeared through many different lenses — from the need
for alternatives to urea, to the interest in multispecies pasture, regenerative grazing and soil health, through to carbon accounting and the carbon economy. There’s no doubt that this is one of the big areas that requires increased knowledge and investment by the dairy industry. Holding an annual innovation day has been on GippsDairy’s wish list for some years now, and I’m pleased to confirm the first “GippsDairy Muster” will be held on Thursday, May 5, on farm at Denison. With keynote speakers on People and Carbon, and seven interactive stations to choose from, it will be a day not to be missed, so mark it on your calendar now. For more information about the muster please visit dairyaustralia.com. au/gippsdairymuster The Dairy Levy Poll is also under way, and I encourage you to engage with the process and be sure to cast your vote in March. As well as providing research, resources and extension, one of the important purposes of the levy is to allow us as an industry to do the things we can’t do as individual farms. With the recommended increase representing $5 per 500 kg MS per cow, the Dairy Levy is our collective investment in a prosperous future for our industry. For more information, please visit dairypoll.com.au Lauren Finger chair, GippsDairy
HELP TO PREVENT FACIAL ECZEMA Dairy Australia has recently secured an emergency use permit (PER 90370) for importation of controlled release intraruminal zinc oxide boluses to aid in the prevention of facial eczema in dairy cattle. Facial eczema is a liver disease (often accompanied by photosensitisation) caused by spores of a pasture fungus that multiply rapidly in warm and humid conditions. It can have devastating impacts on herd productivity and animal welfare. It occurs commonly in Gippsland, particularly East Gippsland, and the Bega Valley and occasional outbreaks in dairy cattle have also been reported northern Victoria. Feeding the correct amount of zinc oxide in grain/concentrates at milking can be highly effective for facial eczema prevention in the milking herd. However, dry stock (such as heifers, bulls, and dry cows) is also at risk of facial eczema. An online Q&A session with Dr Andrew Dowling (PGG Wrightson), Tim Harcombe and Nikky Dally (NZ AgriTrade) and Nadine Krippner (Fortis Vets Ltd) from New Zealand was held on December 17, 2021 to introduce the boluses. If you were unable to attend, a recording is available under ‘Zinc oxide boluses for dry stock’ on the facial eczema page on the Dairy Australia website. The key messages from the online session were as follows: ■ Zinc oxide boluses provide highly effective prevention against facial eczema in cattle for four weeks.
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The boluses have no meat or milk withholding period.
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Boluses will be available to purchase from several veterinary clinics in the Gippsland and Bega Valley regions under an APVMA (Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority) emergency use permit.
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Boluses will cost between $7 and $16 each, depending on freight and weight of the animals being treated. Animals must be weighed (or weight tape used) prior to administration to avoid the risk of zinc toxicity, particularly in smaller animals. Three different sized applicators are available according to the size of the bolus; these can be purchased or loaned from veterinary clinics stocking product. Never administer more than one bolus, or alongside other rumen boluses, to avoid damage to the wax capsule.
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If spore counts remain high, readministration after four weeks is required.
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Do not administer any other zinc supplements to treated stock.
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Do not use boluses that are broken or damaged.
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Administer boluses when pasture spore counts exceed 20,000 spores/gram or if poor performing animals have elevated blood GGT (gamma glutamyl transferase) levels.
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To purchase zinc oxide boluses, please speak to your veterinarian or
Facial eczema occurs commonly in Gippsland. Zinc oxide boluses provide highly effective prevention.
contact Nadine Krippner (Fortis) at nadine.krippner@fortisnz.co.nz or phone +64 21 494 016.
Pasture spore monitoring Farmers and stockfeed manufacturers are urged to monitor spore counts throughout the high danger period. Given the unseasonably wet and humid conditions, the Spore Monitoring Program will be supported by Dairy Australia again this year. Results will be reported by region and emailed fortnightly to the facial eczema email subscriber list. To join the email subscriber list, email GippsDairy Regional extension officer Kristen Davis at kristen. davis@gippsdairy.com.au or phone 0476 159 591. Farmers in other regions, or who are not participating in the sentinel farm program, are strongly encouraged to monitor their own spore counts. Instructions for sampling pasture for facial eczema spore counting can be found on the Dairy Australia facial eczema page. Samples should be refrigerated if not being processed immediately. Spore counting costs between
$20 and $50 per sample. ■ Macalister Irrigation District/Traralgon. Gippsland Veterinary Hospital (Maffra) 5147 1177. ■
West Gippsland. West Gippsland Vet Care (Warragul). 5623 4822
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South Gippsland. Gippsland Veterinary Group (Leongatha). 5662 2251 EXT 2.
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Orbost. Snowy River Vet Clinic. 5154 2387.
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Yarram. Yarram Veterinary Centre. 5182 5400.
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Bega/South Coast. Bega Cobargo Veterinary Hospitals. (02) 6492 1837
More information More information for farmers about the disease, spore counting and facial eczema prevention can be obtained by speaking to their nutrition advisor or vet or by accessing the facial eczema information on the Dairy Australia website or by contacting Kristen Davis via email at kristen.davis@ gippsdairy.com.au or by phone on 0476 159 591. — Dr Stephanie Bullen, lead — animal health and fertility, Dairy Australia
DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA FEBRUARY 2022
GIPPSLAND REGION // 3
Managing dairy effluent AGRICULTURE VICTORIA has developed
informative and useful online resources to assist dairy farmers to manage the dairy effluent on their farms.
Choosing a dairy effluent management system Developing an effective dairy effluent system requires detailed planning and often expert technical advice and guidance. It is important to consider the soil type, distance to waterways, how the system can be integrated into existing infrastructure, management strategies, such as fertiliser application and irrigation management. It is also important to conduct the appropriate geotechnical investigations to guide site selection. Choosing the most appropriate effluent system will depend on what is: more practical, easier to maintain, considering other activities around the farm and has the potential to return the most benefits.
Types of dairy effluent systems All effluent systems have their advantages and disadvantages. It’s a matter of choosing the system that best suits the farm variables, location and labour capacity.
System types can include direct application to pastures and crops (although a higher risk system), single storage ponds, multi-pond systems or tanks. Due to the large number of considerations required when planning an effluent system, technical assistance is often recommended. As the lead agency in effluent and manure systems design and management in Victoria, Agriculture Victoria provides technical resources and training through the nationally recognised Design Livestock Effluent Systems (Unit AHCLSK 506A) in partnership with Dairy Australia.
The Effluent System Designer List This is a list of service provider businesses who have achieved a level of competence based on successfully completing all assessments and course requirements for the Design Livestock Effluent Systems Course. They are able to offer farmers relevant services with respect to planning, design and management. For a full range of information notes visit: agriculture.vic.gov.au/livestock-and_animals/ dairy/managing-effluent Agriculture Victoria has a range of resources available to help farmers manage effluent. — Ashleigh Michael, dairy project officer
DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA FEBRUARY 2022
4 // GIPPSLAND REGION
Pulling the plug on power issues
Clare Porter said unexpected power outages in the past year had affected the home farm, Woranga, on four days and for 15 days at Nioka Ridge.
JEANETTE SEVERS
THE NIOKA Ridge farm partnership is invest-
Every time the power is out and the cows miss a milking, it takes 25 days for them to return to normal production.
The Porter family has ordered a new generator that will run the milking platform, automatic cup removers and the milk vat.
ing in a new generator to save them time and money in the long term, after several episodes of power outages in the past year. They are doing so to offset animal health and welfare issues that have arisen, and affected production, each time the power is cut off for dairy farms in the Yarram district. In the past year and a bit that has been often, between one to seven days. The Porter family has three generations working on two dairy farms in the Yarram district. Nioka Ridge is 130 ha, and Woranga, the home farm, is 223 ha. The two high production herds are a mix of Friesian, Jersey, Brown Swiss, Red, Guernsey and Normande cows. At Nioka Ridge, after four years without any power issues, the grid failed in December 2020. Since that date, the power has gone off for four days at Woranga and for 15 days at Nioka Ridge. It has meant lower production, mastitis problems for the cows, and dumped milk. “Since 2020, the contractors who service Yarram district don’t live locally,” Clare Porter said. So travel time also has to be factored into attending any transformer or power line issues, as well as knowledge of the local area. In one instance, Clare found out the power was off in the morning, notified the power company, and it wasn’t restored until 9.30 pm. “And in July last year, a lightning strike blew out a transformer. I missed milking our cows that night, because it took eight hours for the crew to put a fuse in,” Clare said.
DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA FEBRUARY 2022
GIPPSLAND REGION // 5
While some people might say, milk the cows at the other dairy, the family has tried that idea. Because of the distance the cows had to walk, their udders rubbing against their legs caused health and welfare problems. Power was off for a week in October-November last year when a tree fell across the power line on a neighbouring property. The unreliable supply and lack of maintenance has now got too much for the Porter family, who have also contacted their local parliamentarians. “We want to install a reliable generator so we have a secure power source,” Clare said. “At the moment, when the power goes out, it takes us two hours to change over the cups and other equipment, before we can start milking.” Often the milking team won’t know power is out until they get to the dairy at 4am in the morning. So the cows are standing around waiting to be milked. “There is a lot of incentive from government and industry to install solar panels, but you can’t milk in the dark using solar power,” Clare said. And, as Clare says, if their cows miss a milking, the farmers are managing more than mastitis and dumped milk. “It takes about 25 days for the cows to recover normal production,” Clare said. The major fault is the lack of a local power line maintenance crew. About 50 dairy sheds in the district have been subjected to ongoing power issues. Many are upgrading their shed infrastructure. One local electrician has wired a new generator into 10 dairy sheds in the past three months. “The demand is caused by constant power outages and also knowing the grid supply is affected on hot days,” Clare said. “It’s these kind of issues that mean people leave the dairy industry, and there’s more expertise and production last from the dairy pool. “Our two dairy farms produce enough milk to feed 12,000 people each day. Each person our cows are producing milk for, is one more person who doesn’t have to milk a cow themselves.” Clare has been trying to get a new generator ordered for the Nioka Ridge farm. Delays in the past couple of months have been caused by the pandemic and lack of local supply, even though the model she has chosen is manufactured in Australia. She wants to be able to run the dairy and the milk vat, and the automatic cup removers. The 13KVA generator currently on standby use in the Nioka Ridge dairy can run the milk plant and the automatic cup removers, but not the vat. If the processor’s milk truck cannot make extra pick ups, the milk in the vat is dumped. The same thing happens when the milk goes above a certain temperature, when the power is off. And the Porter family needs the new generator wired in and easy to switch on, to minimise delays in milking. The delay in delivery has caused human as well as animal health problems. “We had a diesel generator wired up and I was milking in the pit and getting headaches,” Clare said. “The wind was blowing the wrong way and I was being poisoned from the diesel fumes. The same thing happened when we had the tractor pack wired in.” There have also been technical issues. “Our electricians are having difficulty getting the technical advice to identify how to rewire the dairy,” Clare said. “Every dairy is different. One of our dairies is single-phase wiring, the other one is three-phase.”
Clare and Terry in the dairy pit at Nioka Ridge. The current generator can run the milking platform and the automatic cup removers, but not the milk vat.
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DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA FEBRUARY 2022
6 // GIPPSLAND REGION
Working with nature
Craig with a mix of marshmallow, clover and dock. Craig, Leah, Celeste, Patch and Nook, with Philip Vaughan, of Landcare, at a newly-fenced section of the farm where planting begins in March this year.
JEANETTE SEVERS
AN EAST Gippsland farming family has taken on a bold new vision for their high production dairy farm. The Calvert family is applying ecological principles to their farm production, fencing out areas and planting trees and lower-storey vegetation. In all, 1.7 km of fencing will be completed to protect revegetated areas. The project has garnered interest from a range of environmental groups — including Landcare and organisations with interests in insect and bird biodiversity. Craig and Celeste Calvert, their children, and Craig’s father Patch, are the current guardians of the Calvert farm, with its 200-year family history. Craig knows the land well, although he, Celeste and Patch have only recently taken on ownership. They have been keen to take control of the farm to turn around some of the past management practices. The farm is 121 hectares of flat river country with small undulations, and 65 ha of hill country. “The topsoil is clay loam and, on average across the farm, is 2.8 metres deep,” Craig said. “Bedrock is 14.5 to 100 metres below the surface across the farm. Old river courses cross the property.” Craig and Celeste feel responsible for the heritage they will leave. It’s not only about creating a future for themselves and their children, but their effect on the environment. They are conscious of the Calvert family’s responsibility
of the past couple of centuries as well as their own family’s longer, more traditional, connection to country. “Craig has taken more of an approach to work with the land than against it,” Celeste said. “At the end of the day, it’s a core value of our culture to look after the land. That’s instilled in us for generations. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, we all have a responsibility to look after our land.” “Knowledge comes in different forms, and we all learn things differently to each other, but everything is taught to us if we want to learn,” Craig said. “We can all adopt a few more practices to improve our soil health naturally and make nutrients accessible to the grass.” For Craig and Celeste, putting aside land to grow an ecological mix of trees, shrubs and grasses is a small compromise for building a healthy landscape. “Nitrogen is already there in the atmosphere, so we’re using vegetation to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, to help build healthy topsoil,” he said. “Encouraging more vegetation lifts leaf and other organic matter which increases stored carbon in the soil.” And although it’s a long-term investment to realise financial gains, they also believe trees will improve herd health and productivity. “We want to show our high production farm can also be environmentally responsible,” Craig said. He runs one cow/0.4ha, in a herd of 300– 330 cows.
The historic spray regime has been reduced to once a year and has not only seen the cost of inputs drop, but soil health has improved.
“I work out our income at cost of return/day/ acre,” Craig said. “We lose a lot of production because we have paddocks where there is little shade. We need to manage the cows and their grazing rotation so they don’t get overheated, and that creates stress on the animals and us. Cold nights and wet weather also affect cow health and production. “We also need to protect pastures and crops from wind, and slow floodwaters to reduce erosion.
“We want a sustainable business, existing within a healthy ecology and demonstrating environmental balance,” Craig said. That’s a lot of goals to tick off. When Craig took over the farm only a few years ago he included an animal nutritionist in his workforce. He focused on lifting the genetic potential of the herd, using top-line Friesian and Holstein semen in the higher-production cows. He also bought in replacement cows-in-calf
DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA FEBRUARY 2022
GIPPSLAND REGION // 7
with production figures that mirrored what he was aiming for. He implemented cell grazing and redesigned paddocks to allow a 28-day grazing rotation. Crops, including lucerne, are grown in larger paddocks. Bores were sunk in 2018, and troughs, pumps and two-inch pipe were installed across the farm. The reticulated system replaced the farm’s reliance on town water, and its consequent cost — $8000 per quarter in the dairy. The herd’s production increased by 1200 litres of milk after the first day they started drinking bore water. Craig has reduced the spray regime from its historic levels to once a year. “The farm historically had a spraying regime that cost $18,000 per year. We’ve reduced that to $3500 per year,” Patch Calvert said. “Spraying at the right time and with the right product you can really reduce overhead costs, workload and the impact you have on the environment,” Craig said. He applies lime to improve the soil and plant health, at a rate of one tonne/0.4 ha every year. Craig and Patch are using swales and planting a mix of quick growing and slow growing trees to encourage groundwater table levels to rise across the landscape. “Trees will help us to manage pastures properly,” Craig said. “Using swales to raise water table levels will help trees, bushes, pastures and crops to access that water through their taproots. “On 40 degree Celsius days, cows need to be able to stand under trees. We can affect our outputs by looking after the welfare of our cows by providing them with natural shade.
“Natural shade improves their health, improves their production, and improves the health of our farm by reducing salinity. “We won’t see the benefits for many years, but we’re trying to risk mitigate with these actions.” The focus for Craig, Celeste and Patch is squarely on supporting change for the next generation; Craig and Celeste have four children — Kayla, Leah, Hannah and Graice — with another on the way. Vegetation selection has been based on ecological classes that grew on the country before 1750. A few hundred water reeds, lilies and sedges will be planted in the old watercourse. A mix of 22,000 other species for dry valley forest/swamp scrub/warm temperate rainforest mosaic, lowland forest, plains grassy forest, floodplain reedbed and billabong wetland aggregate, will include acacias (wattle), blackwood, bursarias, leptospermum varieties, melaleucas, lomandra, phragmites, cassinia, eucalyptus varieties — box, red gum and manna gum — tree violet, daisy bush, bitterbush, hop bush, Prickly currant-bush and swamp paperbark. According to East Gippsland Landcare facilitator Phil Vaughan, benefits will start to be realised quite rapidly. “The first section has been fenced and in March this year we’ll begin planting,” Phil said. “We’ll plant in stages, to minimise washout from floods. “We’ll start seeing ecological differences within five years. We’ll see more and greater diversity of birds and insects, and we’ll see more beneficial insects.”
Craig has improved the genetic and production capacity of the herd, and knows that improving the landscape will also benefit his cows.
The farm’s stocking rate is one cow/0.40 hectares.
GIPPSDAIRY MUSTER 5 MAY 2022 Innovate | Connect | Inspire
For more information and to register for this free event in Denison, please visit dairyaustralia.com.au/gippsdairymuster
DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA FEBRUARY 2022
8 // GIPPSLAND REGION
Rebuilt, revamped and efficient JEANETTE SEVERS
NEIL AND Kerryn Gannon installed a newer
Neil Gannon replaced his old rotary dairy with a second-hand 10-year-old rotary dairy, which makes milking more efficient.
The old rotary dairy was 45 years old and required a lot of maintenance.
second-hand rotary dairy a couple of years ago to improve the efficiency of milking twice a day. It’s part of their ongoing aims of improving efficiency on their 267 ha flood-irrigated dairy farm at Tinamba, in the Macalister Irrigation District. There was already a 45-year-old 36-bay rotary platform in use but it required constant maintenance and was in need of a big equipment upgrade. Neil came across a 44-bay second-hand rotary dairy and thought it would be ideal for his farm. Improvements include automatic drafting and cup removers, automatic cow identification and feeding, milk meters and all the milking plant. “The plant was about 10 years old and we dismantled it and rebuilt it ourselves, in a standalone shed with a new platform with electric drives next door to the old dairy,” Neil said. That position used the existing stockyards and enabled the automatic drafting system to be adopted easily. “I organised the steel work for the entry and exit races and draft box,” Neil said. “The shed was erected by the supplier, and contractors installed the platform and did concreting.” He dismantled the old rotary and converted the space into a staff room with kitchen area, and an area for storing the calf milk trailers. “The new dairy provides a lot more open and better working environment,” he said. “It’s also a lot less maintenance.” The shed began being erected in April and Neil and his workers had the new dairy installed and operating by early August. “We had to milk about 50 cows fresh in milk in the old dairy before starting work in the new one,” Neil said.
Time saved in spades It’s now been two full seasons using the new dairy. “It saves us a lot of time,” Neil said. The milking herd is seasonal calving, starting in August. Neil runs two herds every year, joining
Friesian to Jersey, and Jersey to Friesian, working towards a three-way cross. Cows are in the milking herd and the heifers are in a second herd. A significant advantage of the new dairy is the electronic identification and automatic drafting of cows. Cows under treatment are locked out of cups-on to prevent accidental milking. In the old dairy, this was a concern. “Auto drafting was the big advantage for us,” Neil said. “You can set drafts ahead of time for drying off and sorting calving cows. It locks out any cows receiving veterinary treatment, which reduces the risk of human error.” While one person is milking, a second person can bring the heifer (second) herd in from the paddock and be responsible for herd changeover and cleaning the stockyards. Three weeks before calving, the heifers are brought through the dairy three times, so they get used to walking on concrete, going through a race, and the sight, sound and smell. This practice enables the heifer to be calmer when she’s introduced to milking. “We’re using much the same workforce, but now it’s a bit more comfortable milking and a bit shorter milking time,” Neil said. “We’re milking 450 cows at the moment. It takes us about 100 minutes to milk the herd. Then there’s the clean-up. It all makes the shift two hours in total. “We run the heifers in a separate herd to the milkers, all year, until we start drying off. The heifers do well out of it — they don’t get bullied or pushed to the back of the yard, they build confidence, and at the same time the whole herd isn’t standing on concrete. “The second rostered person’s job is to bring the second herd in. “We also put old cows or lame cows that are recovering in that second herd, because that second herd doesn’t have far to walk to the dairy.” Progressively through the year, heifers move into the main herd. “Any temperamental heifers get put in the main herd to see if they’ll settle down,” Neil said. “If that doesn’t work, tolerance is zero and she’s off to the abattoirs.”
Neil runs two herds each year — the heifers are milked and grazed separately for a year.
The herd is a three-way cross.
The old dairy shed (left) and the new dairy shed with 44-bail rotary platform installed, on the right.